United States Navy Chaplain Corps - Yearbook

Page 249 text:

Chung Im Protestant Church. This small church at Chung Im, Korea, was financed with gifts of marines. The Koreans spoke of it as Parker Memorial Church. Distribution of Scripture. Chaplain E. R. Barnes is pictured with Korean children who have just received a copy of the scriptures. states that many times I have lugged gear over the side only to have to lug it back to another port until I was able to find some kind soul who would deliver it to Korea. In addition to food and clothing there was the distribution of the Scriptures. Chaplain Taylor tells of giving Korean New Testaments to civilians and to Korean Marines serving with his unit. Chaplain Barnes distributed Bibles to Korean children. There was a call for Greek New Testaments by refugees on an island who had established a Bible class. Building Churches As has been mentioned before, a number of churches were built.22 It should be noted that Chaplain Rains helped in the design and building of a church, Chap- lain Horvath worked to open a Korean chapel and Chaplain Spohn lent a tent to a young minister so that he could organize a new church in a nearby community. And so it goes, some were temporary structures, others were rather impressive. One of them was the Chung Im Protestant Church which was financed by Marine gifts. Civilian Worship There were any number of contacts which chap- lains made in the conduct of worship services. To :ite a few, Chaplain Mulligan visited another island, Cheju-do, where prisoners were kept, and held serv- 22 The work of Chaplain Muller and .others has been previously mentioned. ices. In the case of Chaplain Martineau, he was adopted by a refugee group as their priest, since the regular came to them only twice a year. The Interpreter Very few chaplains could speak Korean, as a result great use was made of interpreters. One chaplain in answering his questionnaire spoke of his Uinterrupterf' Although this is probably a misspelling it is all too true. One preaches for a minute or two and then waits for the translation, and so it goes. Chaplain Wolfe used a Korean Marine Chaplain 5 Chaplain Capers had the services of a son of a Methodist Ko- rean pastor named Pak.2i' Chaplain Forney states that his civilian interpreter was introduced to Christianity, accepted Christ and was a great help to him. Almost entirely on his own the Korean learned to play the pump organ. Chaplain Crabtree says that it was the work of the Marines at an orphanage in Kang Wha Do that won his interpreter to Christianity. Were all the facts available, the story of winning Koreans, interpreters and others, to Christianity by the chap- lains would be quite revealing. For example, in the case of Koreans, Chaplain Muller lists 1,256 conver- sions 24 during his tour of duty. On Land and Sea Chaplains were in touch with Koreans aboard ship as well as on land. Chaplain Symons writes of two 25' Cp. pp. 232f. 2' In addition 106 American servicemen conversions are listed by this chaplain. 231 - M

Page 248 text:

these were active from time to time in the program of the chaplaincy. Chaplain C.'E. Blackler, Baptist CND , performed training duty at Yokosuka as did Chaplain Worth C. Grant, Baptist. In addition to these, Chap- lain Stanton R. Wilson, Presbyterian QUSAQ, began serving as a missionary in Korea at Andong in Jan- uary 1953. Orphans Adopt Marines There were some children that did not want to stay in an orphanage, but persisted in staying at Marine encampments. Chaplain Fenstermacher tells of such a case, One cold night in December 1952 several of our hospital corpsmen heard someone crying outside the fence around our compound, near the sick bay. They called the officer of the day and me, and we went out to investigate. It was a small Korean boy, barefooted, bareheaded, and with only an old burlap bag covering his body for clothing. We took him into the sick bay for examination. 'No part of his body was frozen, but his body temperature was a great deal below nor- mal. The corpsmen fed him and kept him over night in a warm bed, and in the morning my clerk, Sergeant Tracey, and I found him a home in one of the orphanages. He was a refugee from the combat area and didn't know what had hap- pened to his parents or where they were. Later on, but still during the winter, another small Ko- rean boy was taken in under similar circumstances at one of our firing batteries. The Marines kept him and cared for him for a few days, and liked him so well that they wanted to adopt him as the Battery Mascot. However, it was against the policy of the command to have Koreans as mascots. It was felt that if we opened the door to one, more would surely follow and the practice might get out of hand, and that it actually would be a disservice to the mascot in the long run, since living with the Marines would make him become used to a way of life and a standard of living which would make it extremely difhcult to readjust to the Korean way of life after the Marines were gone, and would tend to keep him from attending school. Accordingly, I was called upon to find a place for the boy, now known as Sammy to the Marines, in an orphanage. This I did. But within 3 days Sammy was back at the bat- tery. Upon questioning him through an interpreter we found that he didn't care for the meals served at .the orphan- age nor did he appreciate the discipline and the attendance at school required of him. The diet at an orphanage hardly could compare with the menus served in our mess halls nor did it include the large amount of American candy and chew- ing gum which Sammy received as mascot. As for discipline, by comparison there was none for Sammy with the Marines. So he ran away from the orphanage to return to the battery. Two more times I took Sammy to an orphanage, and each time he returned within a few days. Finally, I made arrange- ments for the boy to be taken to the headquarters of the lst Marine Aircraft Wing, about 90 miles from Pusan, there to be taken in by the Marine Memorial Orphanage which is supervised by and supported by Marines. There Sammy made his adjustment, and seemed to be content to stay. He was still there and doing well when I left Korea. Naturally by the time we found Sammy a home where he would stay, everybody in the Battalion knew him or at least about him and was interested in the final disposition of the case. So we ran an article in the battalion newspaper en- titled Sammy Adopts the Marinesf' in which we covered the history of his case. A number of chaplains tell similar experiences. Distribution It was not always easy to get supplies to the needy, Chaplain Ralph H, Walter, Presbyterian CUSAD Chalice for Korean Church. Maj. Joseph P. Cushing, Commanding Ofhcer of the 2d Motor Transport Battalion, Camp Lejeune, presents a gold chalice to Chaplain Martineau to be delivered to the Immaculate Conception Church which he helped to rebuild in KalkO-ni, Korea. MAG4Marine Orphanage-Keoksa-ki, Korea. An aerial view of the building and grounds of the orphanage supported by the Marines. r L iff xi 5 as f 230 - P

Page 250 text:

AJ --v Interpreter. Kim Hae Jong interprets for Chaplain John H. Muller as he delivers a Monday night sermon to his congregation of 200 at the Song Won Leper Colony. Joint Sunday Service. A Korean and an American Navy Chaplain join in conduct- ing religious services for American and Korean marines in Korea. ROK ensigns who were aboard a destroyer for train- ing. They expressed an interest in his religious min- istry as it might pertain to theml' and requested assistance in English grammar and speech. For 2 months they met and discussed these subjects. Chaplain Crabtree tells of meeting Lieutenant Colonel Choi, who was in command of a battalion of the Korean Marine Corps and who was a sincere Christian. In March 1953 Lieutenant Colonel Choi invited the chaplains and the commanding officers of the units in the area to attend a Korean Memorial Service. '6This service generated unity, understand- ing, and good will among Koreans and Ameri- cans . . . Chaplain Robertson for a time conducted services for the Korean Marine Corps Tank Company before they were assigned a Korean Chaplain. The services of Chaplain Ruleman held for an attached Korean Marine Tank Company are described as follows: . . . Seated cross-legged on immaculate mats with shoes removed and carefully lined along the center aisle, were 75 Korean Marines, among the toughest fighting men in the world. Captain O, commanding oHicer, had told them all men should be present and should remain quiet. He re- mained for the service and joined in the warm hearted singing from the United Nations Hymnals printed in both Korean and English. . . . Lt. Hong, the interpreter, was raised as a Presby- terian Christian who hopes to study in America after the war and return to Korea to build a new school. Chaplain E. F. Ernst made a trip of 160 miles by jeep twice a month to visit the island of Kangkwa to preach to the American troops attached to the 2d Guerilla Partisan Pact which was composed principally of North Koreans Fighting on the side of South Korea. The Korean Service Corps The Korean Service Corps was a quasi-military body consisting of inducted laborers organ-l ,ized in 1951 under the control of the ROK army. Prior to that time Koreans were hired directly for certain tasks in the U.S. military installations. The men of the Corps generally worked 10 hours per day and in emergencies 14 hours. A rest period of 24 hours was given every 15 days. The period of en- listment was for 6 months. The Corps was composed of men who failed to qualify for the arrned forces of Korea because of age or some other disability. Some remained in the organization after the 6 month's pe- riod because of the scarcity of employment on the outside. The lst Division had about 5,000 of the Corps attached to it and in addition hired 650 civilian work- ers. The main tasks of the members of the Corps were to carry supplies, evacuate the wounded, and to do general police or manual labor about the camp. Chaplain Capers in his work with the Corps secured hymn books with parallel English-Korean. Through the aid of Pak 25 a large church attendance was at- tained. Chaplain Muller notes the large percentage in his group that had not attended a Christian service cf.p. 231. A ' -232-